1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is generally directed to safety seats or car seats for children, and more particularly to an installation mechanism and method for installing a car seat on a vehicle seat.
2. Description of Related Art
Parents and caregivers often have great difficulty properly installing a Group 1 car seat within a vehicle on the vehicle's seat using the vehicle's seat belt or safety harness system. The seat belt typically must be fished by the parent between the seat shell and base, or around the base in a complicated, difficult to ascertain belt path. This can often lead to erroneous installation of the car seat. The vehicle's seat belt can often be incorrectly routed or improperly tightened by the parent due to the complexity, inaccessibility, and/or inability to see or visualize the intended belt routing.
One attempted solution to resolve these difficulties was the introduction of an ISOFIX car seat. The ISOFIX seat provided rigid connectors on the car seat to connect to anchors in the vehicle near the vehicle's seat. This eliminated the need for a parent to route the vehicle's belt around the car seat when securing the car seat on the vehicle's seat. However, the ISOFIX car seat included additional parts adding cost to the car seat, which can be prohibitive and result in a parent deciding or being unable to purchase such a seat or system. Often, the parents attached the ISOFIX car seat with both the ISOFIX anchors and the vehicle's seat belt, negating any improved installation or ease of use or installation benefits. Also, ISOFIX car seats use either a load leg or a top tether. These add a degree of complexity to the installation process and thus increase the time and effort to install the seat.
Another known attempted solution to the above problems is known as the “Roemer King,” which has a seat shell that flips forward during installation on a vehicle's seat to allow the user access to the base and the belt path. However, many consumers do not trust that the seat shell will not rotate forward during a crash. Thus, consumer confidence in such a solution has not been satisfactory. In addition, the car seat cannot be flipped very far forward in smaller cars. This can prevent the user from reaping the benefit of the car seat during installation. The car seat cannot be moved completely out of the way for installing the base on the vehicle seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,099 to Cosco discloses a seat with a shell that is removable from the base. The release mechanism is on the shell. The base has recline tracks and the shell engages the tracks when installed. US publication no. 2005/0264064 and EP publication no. 1 761 142 to Orbit Baby disclose a car seat base that installs in a vehicle. Several different seat shells can be attached to the base, thus making this system modular. The car seat also has a pivoting action. EP publication no. 1 493 616 to Play SA discloses a car seat with a seat that is detachable from a base. Detachment of these seats from the bases is not particularly easy or intuitive.